His vision grew hazier with each step he took.
"*pant* *pant*," he pauses for a brief moment. "You have got to be kidding me," he mumbled to himself.
He could hear the distant howl of the lynches. Drained of his mana, It was impossible to tell exactly where they're camping. In this dense cluster of trees, this was their playground. Perhaps there were waiting for him to collapse? After all, the deadly poison seemed to be taking effect.
He knew that having a go with them would mean suicide. He decided slide down a relatively steep cliff. Unsurprisingly, he fell down with a thud. The wound around his stomach started to reopen.
'Come on, shake it off,' he thought to himself, mustering his remaining strength to get up. He couldn't afford to die here.
"nggh..." he finally manages to get up. However, the huge time loss meant that the lynches were drawing closer. He searched through his bear hide pouch to find some temporary remedy. To his luck, he found an elixir. But no sooner had he opened the bottle than...
"aaah!" his scream tore through the tranquil silence of the night. It was an instantaneous jolt of pain that sent him back on the ground. His fingers were strewn all over. Blood was now oozing in two places.
"heh heh... Its kind of funny how you thought you had a fighting chance," a man had appeared in his vicinity. Although he couldn't make out his features, he could understand that this was the last person to be confronted with.
"Oh man," The realization suddenly dawned on him.
"Come on, Yuha, don't give up that easily," The bloodthirsty man commented. "You still have some use. Y'know, not many adventurers have the balls to do what you just did. At least, the ones from here..." he spaced out for a brief moment.
Yuha didn't respond. He was in a very critical state. Breathing and keeping his mana in check was all he could manage. The man searched through Yuha's pockets.
"Son of a... where did you keep it." He was getting visibly frustrated, "This is the part where you try to give me an answer." He viciously kicked at his wounded stomach, causing him to vomit some blood.
Yuha still wouldn't respond. He planned to endure this for as long as he could.
"Have it your way then," Then he could hear a rustling amongst the bushes, "Seems you attracted some new company. Well, I wouldn't want to overstay my welcome. It's a pity that we have to part ways so soon..."
"Wait." A weak cry came out of Yuha's mouth.
"Hm. Now you plan to tell me." Seems the man's psychology trick worked, "Alright, I'll believe you."
The man picked a sword (well, it's size was between that of a dagger's and that of a machete) and tossed it towards Yuha's range.
"Huh, what's the big idea?" Yuha was perplexed with this sudden development.
"Humans have a weird way of convincing themselves of false security." he spaced out for a moment, "Well, a caravan is going to arrive at the south west river bank by the break of dawn. You alight it." with those words, he tossed an elixir toward him.
The man left with these parting words, "These lynches shouldn't be much trouble to you after using this, so you should be fine."
Yuha was now left fending for his life against the bloodthirsty hounds.
"Aw crap..." he quickly picked up the elixir and the weapon, "Well, come on. Let's get this over with!"